//------------------------------// // Chapter 22: At the End of the Trail // Story: Fallout Equestria: The Light Within // by FireOfTheNorth //------------------------------// Chapter Twenty-Two: At the End of the Trail Rare Sparks and I wasted no time after getting our information from the boss of the Chainsmokers. We immediately struck out east in the direction of Burnside, passing between the now two megaspell craters that marred Vanhoover’s landscape. Though it was tempting to stop off at Burnside to resupply, we pressed on past the settlement toward the grid I had marked on my PipBuck’s map. Time was of the essence for us; the Republic of Rose had been destroyed just over a week ago, and there was no telling when Mr. Bucke would move on from his hideout if he was finished with it. I almost hoped that he was aiming for Burnside, just so that it would keep him within reach. As we trekked through Vanhoover’s ruins, searching the grid for suspicious buildings, I played more of Shining Armor’s audio recordings. I wasn’t concerned about it attracting the attention of raiders in the area, since that would actually be beneficial to us. If they were associated with the Northern Lights Coalition, then they might know where Mr. Bucke’s hideout was. Also, I was curious about Equestria’s lost history and wanted to hear it from a pony who’d lived in that time, even if the gaps of time between each recording sometimes made it hard to figure out exactly what was going on. “This is likely the last recording I’ll be making while still in the Empire for a while. I’m off to Canterlot, then out to Celestia-knows-where for an indeterminate amount of time. The Equestrian Army has need of me, so they say, and they’re pulling me back in. Apparently, my status as a prince is not enough of a reason for them not to call me up as an instructor. I’m sure I could have Cadence appeal for me, but that’s not something I would really want. The letters I’ve received from the front are dire, and perhaps I’m what’s needed to give Equestria a boost. Perhaps to help me move along, the Equestrian Army has offered to promote me to Lieutenant Colonel upon arrival, with the associated pay. Not that the money is necessary, but the new uniform would be nice.” As the recording came to an end, the plan to attract attention paid off. According to my EFS, there were several enemies waiting for us ahead, hiding behind an old auto-carriage shop. I warned Rare Sparks as I scouted the street with my eyes, finding the optimal positions to take cover. We were prepared for them, but not as prepared as I’d hoped. Before we even reached the auto-carriage shop, the raiders burst out guns-blazing. I cast SATS as I ran for cover, firing back with my magical energy rifle and killing one of the raiders. Another raider climbed onto the roof, a rocket launcher battle saddle on her back, and fired a missile off at the auto-carriage I’d been running towards. I backpedaled as it exploded, ducking into a nearby shop. Rare Sparks’s minigun roared as she let loose on the street, tearing up the raiders that were firing on her. Their weapons had little effect on her Steel Ranger armor, and she managed to keep her unhelmeted head safe. I cautiously crept back toward the shop’s entrance and fired at the mare with the rocket launcher as she reloaded. She really didn’t like that, especially when one of my shots grazed and burned her, and instead of firing her missile at Rare Sparks, the larger threat, she fired at me. I ran back deeper into the building as the explosion destroyed the entrance and sent pieces of the wall tumbling down. I located the stairs and galloped up to the second floor before heading toward a window facing the street. I fired on the raider again, and this time I didn’t miss. Her rocket launcher went off as she fell, the rocket taking out a random mailbox. As I headed back down the stairs to help out Rare, who’d pushed the raiders back and out of my field of fire from the window, I almost didn’t notice the fresh set of red marks on my EFS ahead of me. What really drove the point home was nearly colliding with a raider as I descended the stairs. He swung out with a spiked club, and I swung out with my foreleg. After breaking his nose with a solid swing, I fired my combat shotgun at him, blowing off his jaw and letting the club fall to the ground. I met another raider at the bottom of the stairs, SMG in her mouth. She also met her end from my shotgun. Machine gun fire tore through the building’s thin walls, and I was forced to run back up the stairs to avoid being torn apart. Pulling the stem from a metal apple, I threw it down the stairs so that it would bounce through the door. A red dot disappeared from EFS, and I hurried down the stairs, casting SATS as I emerged through the door. The raider who’d had the machine gun was dead, but there was another nearby with a machete in her teeth. I fired my shotgun several times before time came back to normal to ensure she wouldn’t have a chance to stab me. Following the red lights on my EFS, I headed toward the back of the shop. A back door swung open, momentarily letting in filtered sunlight and silhouetting a mare with a shotgun battle saddle. I knocked her head against the wall with my foreleg and broke off her firing bit before firing my own shotgun into her face. Another raider entered through the back door, and I stabbed my machete into his neck before he registered I wasn’t a friend, causing him to fall and prop open the door. I peered outside, my magical energy rifle drawn and ready. This was where the majority of the red marks on my EFS were concentrated, which made perfect sense given what I could see. We hadn’t just run into a random patrol of raiders or a few sent out to ambush us; we’d stumbled upon an entire camp of the scum, and a large one at that. Behind this shop, they’d set up camp around an ancient playground, vandalizing the friendly cutouts of Celestia, Luna, and Pinkie Pie in the most horrendous ways possible[LS2]. There were no raiders trying to attack (or flee) through this building at the moment, so I was able to get a good look around. That rocket launcher battle saddle had seemed a bit too nice for raiders, and now I knew why. Stacked up near a jungle gym were several crates with the Northern Lights Coalition logo on them. Jackpot. The raiders were rushing around like mad, but their interest was not in my direction. Rare Sparks strode in through a gap in the rows of buildings, her minigun cutting down the raiders that couldn’t find adequate cover. She had apparently chased off all the ones we’d originally been fighting, or at least had had the time to take a breather and put on her helmet. The raiders began to rally under shouts from their leader, a scarred earth pony in heavy scrap armor, and I thought it high time I got back into the fight. I took out one raider with my magical energy rifle before I even left the building, turning him to ash with my shot as I climbed over the raider in the doorway. None of the raiders noticed my presence yet, and I was easily able to take down another raider as she tried to surround Rare like the others. I threw a metal apple at a duo hiding behind an old refrigerator as I moved forward, creeping up behind the raiders’ defenses. That got their attention, though I still managed to take one more stunned raider down with my rifle before any of them were able to turn their guns on me. I jumped and slid across the dead grass and came to rest behind a wagon, which the raiders’ shots clattered against noisily. Somepony threw a metal apple over the wagon, and it landed nearby. It was close enough to hurt but not close enough to throw or kick away, so I scuttled as far under the wagon as I dared and wrapped myself up in my doctor’s coat. The explosion caused the wagon to rock, and I was still hit by shrapnel, but my coat protected me from the worst of it. I could wait to remove the small pieces that had pierced my patch jobs until we were through this fight. I rolled a metal apple of my own under the wagon as I crawled out from under it, and the raiders never noticed it among their hooves until it was too late. A raider was practically on top of me when I got out from under the wagon, but I cast SATS and was able to get my shotgun up in time to wipe the victorious expression off her face. Another raider came around the wagon at me with a machete, and I shot him several times with my shotgun. One of the raiders had come around the wagon in the other direction, and I struck out with my hindlegs as I spotted him out of the corner of my eye. I felt bones crack, but for once they weren’t mine, and the raider was thrown backwards. I quickly wheeled on him and finished him off with my shotgun, barely avoiding a shot from his magical energy pistol that lanced past my head. Turning back around toward the playground, I spotted a raider climbing to the top of the jungle gym, where a magical energy minigun was mounted. I couldn’t let her turn it on Rare Sparks, so I cast SATS and fired at the raider with my magical energy rifle. Despite Rare’s enhancements to the weapon, luck was not with me at the moment, and the raider was just too far away. I galloped toward her, firing my rifle at the raiders I passed and hoping the shots had killed them. Praying I had enough momentum, I ran up a rusty slide and came at the raider on the minigun from behind. My surprise attack was not as surprising as I’d hoped it would be, and the mare swung around at me before I could strike. With an armored foreleg, she knocked my magical energy rifle out of my grip before picking up a sledgehammer in her teeth. I ducked and backpedaled as she swung the heavy weapon at me nearly effortlessly. I didn’t have much room to maneuver here, but neither did she. She brought the hammer down at me, but I jumped to the side, bouncing off the railing to land atop her weapon. Surprisingly, she lifted the hammer and me, causing me to nearly fall off the jungle gym as I was thrown. She swung the hammer at me, bending the railing I was forced to abandon. While I was momentarily behind her and she hadn’t yet lifted the sledgehammer back up, I took my chance. The moment my machete was out of its sheath, I cast SATS and targeted the mare’s body. Her forelegs were well armored, but her torso armor had a gap in it in a most inopportune location. I jammed my machete in as far as I could, feeling it scrape against a rib in slow motion. When I yanked it out with a spray of blood when time returned to normal, the mare stumbled and fell, dead from bisected lungs and heart. Another raider was climbing up on the jungle gym, but I dealt with her quickly, slashing my machete through her throat as she fired a revolver at me. Now, it was only me and the magical energy minigun up here. To lend Rare a hoof, I climbed up onto the minigun and began firing down on the raiders from behind. They never stood a chance as the energy beams lanced through their unprotected bodies. I ceased firing when only one raider remained alive. Unfortunately, this time it wasn’t the leader that we’d managed to keep alive; that scarred and heavily armored earth pony was lying nearby, torn in half by a grenade from Rare’s grenade launcher. The survivor was a young unicorn, a foal really, who was huddled shivering against a stack of crates. He had the typical raider look—rough, patchwork armor and a spiked mohawk for a mane—but none of the crazed hatred in his eyes. A new recruit, perhaps, though hopefully not so new that he didn’t know the information we needed. “Don’t kill me!” he begged as he heard Rare Sparks’s ponderous approach, “I-I didn’t kill nopony!” “You tried to shoot me, though,” Rare said, her voice made more menacing by the speakers in her helmet. “Yeah, but what good did it do?” he whimpered, “You gonna kill me now?” “Not yet,” I said, “We need information from you. Where’s Mr. Bucke’s hideout?” “I don’t know anything about that,” he driveled. “All these weapons, they come from one place,” I said, gesturing to the crates around him, “Raider gangs made deals with Mr. Bucke, and he gives them these things. So, where’s his hideout?” “I don’t know!” the raider said pleadingly, “I never heard nopony say nothin’ about a Mr. Bucke, an’ all these weapons were stolen from slavers.” “Slavers? From where?” Rare Sparks asked. “Th-there’s a stadium, not far from here,” the raider stammered out, “R-Regent Park.” “I know where that is,” Rare Sparks told me. “S-so, is that it? You going to kill me now?” the raider asked. “If you can really swear you never killed anypony,” I said after thinking for a bit, “You can go, but if I find you raiding again, then there won’t be a second chance. Go to Burnside.” “I can’t go there,” the raider said with a frown, “I tried to run a business after my da passed, but the caps ran out and I got thrown out of town. That’s why I came here. Being a raider isn’t something I wanted, but what other choice did I have?” “Then join a caravan; guards are well paid,” Rare Sparks suggested. “Yeah, I’ll-I’ll try something. I thought anything was better than starving, but this is too dangerous with a Wasteland Doctor and a Steel Ranger out wiping out gangs,” the raider said as he slunk away. “Well, looks like your new title is making big waves,” Rare said in jest after the raider had gone. “Shut up,” I said jokingly, “I wouldn’t mock too much. As a companion of mine, you’re sure to get one sooner or later as well.” *** The Regent Park Stadium was right where Rare Sparks said it would be, though there was a new addition since the last time she’d seen it. Up from the center of the stadium sprouted a radio tower that I now knew meant the ponies around it had made a deal with Mr. Bucke or Lord Lamplight. So far, we hadn’t strayed far outside of the grid the Chainsmoker boss had pointed out, so we were on the right track. We were closing in on Mr. Bucke’s hideout, and hopefully Mr. Bucke himself. From a distance, we spotted three lookouts atop the stadium, and more down at the gates. Getting in without being seen would be next to impossible. We weren’t here to just have a chat, though. We needed information on Mr. Bucke, and these slavers likely wouldn’t give it to us voluntarily. Though I had no desire to let these slavers go on doing what they were doing, I considered just walking up to talk to them, in case they would give us the information without a fight (or more likely sell it). That wouldn’t work, though, not with DJ Pon3 spreading word about a Wasteland Doctor, and with our recent destruction of a slaver company at the nearby Mega Cinema. At least one slaver had escaped from us there, and they had probably told the other slaver companies about us. We moved as close as we could while still being able to see the lookouts atop the stadium, and then Rare went ahead. I climbed an old water tower, panicking a couple times as it creaked and groaned, but the ladder I was climbing stayed attached, and I made it to the top. I set up my sniper rifle and waited until I thought Rare Sparks would be in position. I couldn’t count on SATS at this distance, so I had no idea how many slavers were within the stadium. I just hoped it wouldn’t be too many for her to handle on her own until I was able to join her, though it would take quite a few slavers to overwhelm a Steel Ranger. The lookouts were roughly evenly spaced around the top of the stadium, with one about as close to me as possible and the others on the opposite side. I lined up a shot on the far left one and fired twice. The second shot was unnecessary, as my first tore through her neck, but better safe than sorry. I cast SATS before swinging my rifle around to point at the far right lookout, who was just reacting to her comrades’ death. I fired off three shots, which were all necessary this time, as the first missed, the second only struck her hindleg, and the third drilled through her chest. Time returned to normal, and I jumped back as a sniper shot rang across the water tower near where I was lying. The third lookout had spotted me and was trying to snipe me before I could get her. I distantly heard explosions as Rare Sparks began her attack, but that wasn’t something I could worry about right now. I crawled back up the slope of the water tower and nearly got my head taken off by another sniper shot. After waiting a few seconds, I slid a box of Sugar-Frosted Apple Bombs across the water tower, and the cereal exploded from the sniper’s shot. I cast SATS before I even heard the shot, and pulled myself into position. Through my rifle’s scope, I lined up a shot on the enemy sniper’s head and pulled the trigger. I don’t know what the odds were, but somehow my shot managed to pierce the mare’s scope before passing through her eye and blowing out the back of her head. Once the spell wore off, I gathered my things and hurried back down the water tower. I had to hoof it across quite a distance to reach the Regent Park Stadium and join back up with Rare Sparks. Red tics and one green one appeared on my EFS as I approached the gates. Strewn around were the bodies of dead slavers, killed by all three of the weapons mounted to Rare’s armor. Passing them by, I entered the stadium. The slavers had apparently been counting on the stadium itself to keep them safe, for there were minimal internal defenses set up. Some crude structures had been built to live in, but that was about all they had in the way of cover. Not all of the slavers were taking advantage of this, though, according to my EFS. Near the center of the stadium was a slave pen, and some of the slavers were hiding among their slaves, counting on us not wanting to hurt these innocent ponies. I followed Rare’s lead and focused first on the slavers holed up behind their homes, keeping the ones in the slave pen in mind only to make sure we didn’t present ourselves as targets to them. Beams from my magical energy rifle lanced out at the slavers’ scrap metal dwellings, and I was surprised at first to see magical energy beams lancing back at me. It shouldn’t have been too surprising, really, since the Northern Lights Coalition was supplying scum like this with all kinds of weapons they wouldn’t typically have. Grenades from Rare’s armor arced through the air, flattening some of the buildings, and I followed up on the chaos by striking down the slavers exposed by the blasts with my magical energy rifle. There were only four of the slavers left now among their scrap metal dwellings, and I checked the other group to see, surprisingly, one of the red lights wink out. I took cover behind the remains of a building before checking out the situation. The slaves were rioting, and the slavers within the pen could do nothing about it, having made a poor choice in surrounding themselves with the ponies they abused. This could be good for us, so long as they didn’t kill all the slavers among them. A slaver peeked out from her cover and threw a metal pear in my direction. I ran out of the way, avoiding the blast that vaporized the wall of a nearby shack, but exposing myself to fire from the remaining slavers. I fired back with my magical energy rifle, turning one of them to ash, but in the hail of bullets, one caught me. I felt it enter my foreleg, just above my PipBuck, and stumbled in my run. As I fell toward the ground, I cast SATS, and managed to take out another slaver before the spell wore off and I came crashing down. Rare Sparks swept in from the other side, blowing the slavers apart with repeated blasts of her automatic shotgun, and I extracted the bullet from my foreleg. The only living slavers now left were in the slave pen, and Rare rushed off to extract one of them before the slaves could kill them all. I drank down a healing potion, cursing the pain as the flesh knitted itself back together, but thanking my lucky stars that the bullet hadn’t hit just a tiny bit lower and destroyed my PipBuck. I had no idea what I’d do without the foreleg-mounted computer. I was relieved to see that a single red tic still remained on my EFS as I made my way toward the slave pen. Somehow, Rare Sparks had been able to convince the slaves not to kill the last slaver, though they’d certainly done a number on him. He was severely beaten, and probably wished he was dead. One of the slaves held him up in front of Rare while the others all gathered around in a crowd. “Where is Mr. Bucke’s hideout,” the Steel Ranger demanded, going right to the point seeing how impatient the slaves were to finish their work. “I don’t know … a Mr. Bucke,” the slaver forced out with broken teeth and broken ribs. “I suppose that radio tower just fell from the heavens, then?” Rare said, pointing to the nearby structure, “Those are set up after Mr. Bucke makes a deal with a group to have them join the Northern Lights Coalition.” “I don’t know anything about that,” the slaver wheezed, and cried out as the slave holding him up struck him in the back, “It’s the truth! That tower was already here when we moved in. We kicked out the slaver company that was here before us. They must’ve made a deal with your Mr. Bucke.” “Where are they now?” I asked. “Oh my—you really do exist,” the slaver said, squinting at me through swollen eyelids, “I thought Berz just made it all up.” “Answer the question!” the slave holding the slaver up demanded as she kicked a broken leg, causing him to scream again. “The Mega Cinema! They went to the Mega Cinema!” the slaver cried out, then began to laugh painfully, “You won’t find them, but you already know that. You killed all of them, all except for Berz, and now his brains are spilled out across the slave pen!” *** I felt numb as we escorted the slaves to Burnside. We’d come so close, but the finish line had eluded us, all because of actions we’d taken days ago. I had to console myself with the fact that this was not the end; there were still plenty of raiders and slavers out there that could’ve made a deal with Mr. Bucke. Once we dropped off the slaves at Burnside and resupplied, Rare and I would be back out there, searching the grid for more radio towers, more raiders with overpowered weaponry, more signs of Mr. Bucke’s work. We were surprised as we reached Burnside’s outer barricade. The Burnside militia, avid listeners to Radio Free Wasteland, congratulated Rare and me on our work. They even allowed my companion to pass the barricade. She still wasn’t allowed to enter the settlement itself, but no longer would she have to wait all the way out in the ruins of Vanhoover. When I left her to buy some supplies, a few merchants (also radio-listeners) approached her with propositions to sell her ammunition. I was trotting through the market, looking for a good price on metal apples, when a pony in the distance caught my eye. She didn’t look particularly remarkable, other than being dressed rather extravagantly, which wasn’t too out of place in Burnside, until I recalled where I’d seen her before. That orange-coated unicorn had traded her faded business suit for snappier clothes, but it was still undoubtedly Bright Silver, from the Republic of Rose’s town council. But how? How could she be here when the Republic of Rose had been destroyed? The pieces clicked into place, and I didn’t like the conclusion I came to. “Bright Silver!” I called out to her, trying to get her attention. She froze when she spotted me, before taking off in the other direction. “Hey!” I yelled as I chased after her, pushing through the crowd of ponies in the market. She ducked and weaved through the market, but I was easily able to track her. She didn’t know I had EFS, nor that her pip was flashing between red and green at the moment. I followed her, and her pace eventually slowed as she became convinced that she’d escaped me. I considered that maybe my suspicions were unfounded, and she’d just been doing trade negotiations here when the megaspell had gone off; but then, why would she have run? Her pip was making its way out of the market, but I couldn’t allow her to reach whatever rooms she was living in, or I’d never get answers. She was still determined to keep out of my sight and took back passages through the markets, which made it all the easier for me to sneak up and corner her. “Why did you do it?” I demanded as I tackled her, pinning her against the prison wall, “How could you betray the Republic of Rose!” The nearby merchants abandoned their stands or closed and locked the doors, but I didn’t care. My business was with Bright Silver, right now. She looked conflicted, as if she couldn’t decide what to say. I needed the truth, though, not some concocted story. “Well?” I said forcefully. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, though everything but her fear was feigned. “You found Mr. Bucke after I left, didn’t you? He told you how to set off the megaspell, and you did,” I said bitingly, “Why? What did he offer you? Caps?” “Yes, and lots of them,” Bright Silver said, dropping the act, “That wasn’t all I got out of the deal, though. I no longer had to serve under President Rose. I could be my own mare, build my own town, without her inescapable influence.” “I don’t care about any of that. You killed everypony in your own town!” I yelled, “Lucky for you, I’m in a hurry. I just need to know where Mr. Bucke’s hideout is. Surely you knew, so you could collect your reward.” “Don’t get so offended, you forget where you are. It was a trade, nothing else. Trade was my job in the Republic, and trade is what rules here in Burnside. I traded that miserable town for something greater, that’s all,” Bright Silver preached at me, “Now, what trade are you offering? The location of Mr. Bucke’s hideout in exchange for … my life, maybe? Would the Wasteland Doctor really kill a pony in cold blood?” “You did that to hundreds,” I said, though now that I considered it, I hadn’t really thought this through. I couldn’t just kill her; that would get me arrested by Burnside’s militia, or worse. She had been just as responsible for the destruction of the Republic or Rose as Mr. Bucke had, though, and I’d made a vow to kill him, so what was the difference? “Well, lucky for you, I’m willing to give you the information you want for free,” Bright Silver said, “Mr. Bucke’s hideout is in the Healing Hooves Clinic. Not that you’ll have an easy time getting there.” “Why would I have a hard time getting there?” I asked, and Bright Silver nodded her head at something behind me, and I turned to see several members of Burnside’s militia pointing their weapons at me. “Wasteland Doctor, you’re under arrest,” one of them said. *** After a mind-wracking wait, the door to the small room I was in opened. In trotted a pony familiar to me, though he said not a word before sitting down at the table across from me. “You’re free to go, so long as you don’t harass anypony else,” Mossy Oak said, passing me a printed citation. “You don’t understand,” I told the Regulator, “She destroyed the Republic of Rose!” “Yes, we’re well aware,” Mossy Oak said, startling me, “Come now, you’re not the only pony in the Wasteland who can piece things together. She’s the only survivor, and she’s a good deal richer than she was before leaving the Republic of Rose.” “But, if you know, then why hasn’t she been arrested?” I asked perplexedly. “It’s not Burnside business what went on in another settlement,” Mossy Oak said simply. “She destroyed that settlement! What if she tries to do the same here?” I demanded as I stood up angrily. “Good! Then we’ll be able to stop it before it happens. It’s useful to keep a known traitor around, and to carefully monitor her. The Regulators have decided that it’s our best chance to prevent what happened to the Republic of Rose from happening here,” Mossy Oak explained, and I sank back down into my chair. “I see,” I said. “Of course, eliminating Mr. Bucke would go even farther toward preventing such a tragedy,” Mossy Oak said, giving me an urgent look, “You’ve been hunting him, I gather, and are closing in.” “That’s right,” I replied. “Good, then go! The sooner he’s gone, the sooner the Wasteland can sleep relatively easily again.” *** From a distance, the Healing Hooves Clinic didn’t look all that imposing. It was a small one-floor building with the logo of the Ministry of Peace above the door, a comforting site to anypony who, like me, spent a lot of time patching themselves up with the bandages and healing potions they produced. Up close, however, the truth was a different story. I felt the auto-carriage Rare Sparks and I were hiding behind shudder as a rocket from the automated turrets in the clinic fired at us. Near us, the corpses of a brahmin and traveling merchant lay, horribly maimed by the rockets that had almost taken us by surprise. As the turrets momentarily ceased their onslaught, Rare Sparks stepped out from behind the auto-carriage, and sent two grenades arcing through the clinic’s windows. The little remaining glass there was was blown out by the explosions that also silenced the turrets. Two more red marks remained on my EFS, but they referred to other things in the building that wanted to kill us, so we approached the clinic’s door. It was locked, and the windows through which the turrets had been shooting were too high to climb through, so I went to work with my screwdriver and bobby pins. I soon had the door unlocked, and we ventured into the building. Cameras hung from the walls in many places, looking practically brand new. They’d been installed by Mr. Bucke, of course, and their cables all eventually ran to the radio tower atop a nearby building. I wondered if anypony was still watching. If they were, it was probably from a distance; neither of the marks on my EFS were particularly active, and I had to conclude they were most likely more turrets. “Wait!” Rare Sparks yelled, and I quickly froze in position, “This hallway is trapped.” I hadn’t noticed it, but she was right. Small electronic devices were strapped to the wall, and I could just barely make out beams of light running between them as dust drifted through. I had nearly put my hoof down and broken one of the beams. Careful examination revealed more along the hallway, their slender cables running to a missile launcher rigged at the end of the hall. This was the only way forward, though, so we’d have to get across somehow. My skills were with computers and conventional locks, not gadgets like this. Rare knew how to handle them, but couldn’t do it very well in her armor, so she guided me through it. Carefully, and tensely, we moved down the hallway, with me following her instructions in order to disable the traps. When we reached the end, I disconnected the missile launcher from the trap and removed its ammunition before setting it on the ground. Another locked door stood in our way before we were able to converge on an office in the back of the clinic, where the cables from the cameras also converged. The two red pips from my EFS were also located in the room. I carefully picked the lock on the office door before sliding it open a crack. I peeked through, spotting a turret that began firing magical energy beams at me, before taking my head out of harm’s way. The easiest way through would be to have Rare fire at the turrets through the wall, but that came with the danger of destroying the information we’d come here for. It also prevented me from simply tossing a metal apple into the room. Inching the door open, I rolled an empty Sparkle~Cola bottle through, and the turrets latched onto it, their beams melting and shattering the glass as they followed its course. I cast SATS as I pulled the door open and rushed into the room, levitating my combat shotgun. The turrets were enclosed in metal casings, but I just kept firing until the nearest one was damaged enough that it could no longer rotate its gun. As time returned to normal, I ducked down next to the other, too close for it to be able to angle its weapon at me. From there, it was a simple matter of disabling them by removing their service panels and cutting their internal wires with my machete. Mr. Bucke’s setup here was nice, but not glamorous. He had a bed and a small sitting area, but the majority of the room was taken up by filing cabinets and a desk with three terminals atop it. I eagerly began to search for any information he had on his plans, the Northern Lights Coalition, or his travels. Things soon began to look bleak, however. The filing cabinets were all locked and took a long time to break into, and when I did break in, all I found were medical records and ashes. The terminals were also a trick to hack, but that also proved a waste of my time. Mr. Bucke was gone, and this time he hadn’t left anything behind. There was proof that he’d had records here, in paper and electronic form, but the paper records had been taken with him or burned, and the electronic records had all been wiped. It was over. We’d found Mr. Bucke’s hideout, but we had taken too long, and he’d moved on before we could get here. *** We returned in defeat to Burnside. Our search across Vanhoover had led us to a dead end. There were still a few leads, but none had been as promising as Mr. Bucke’s hideout, and it had proven to be a bust. The raiders that were part of his Northern Lights Coalition could be questioned, but it would be next to impossible to determine which ones actually belonged, and which had just stolen the equipment from actual members. With as many raider gangs as there were in Vanhoover, it would take forever to sift through them all. Besides, I had the feeling that Mr. Bucke didn’t tell them much, only where his hideout was in case they needed to contact him. That was no good. There was always Timbervale, but they’d only mentioned a Lord Lamplight, not Mr. Bucke himself. Even if they did know where Mr. Bucke was, I wondered if they would tell me. They seemed like nice ponies, which made me question why they’d have made a deal with somepony like Mr. Bucke in the first place. Still, that would be the most promising place to look. Rare Sparks agreed that we should head there, but we needed to resupply first. It was also getting dark, and I left her at Burnside’s gates as I headed into town to find a place to sleep for the night. Before I did that, though, I had somewhere to stop first. “Doc! Long time, no see,” Price Slasher greeted me as I trotted into her shop, “I suppose I should probably call you the Wasteland Doctor now.” “Please don’t,” I said, “Sorry I haven’t visited, but I haven’t been in Burnside much, and when I was here, you were out.” “I was rounding up some more goods,” she said proudly, gesturing to the full shelves of her store, “I was able to net quite a haul, which, incidentally, brings me to a preposition for you. If you’re not too busy taking out raider and slaver camps, I was hoping you could make a delivery for me. Now, it is all the way to Stalliongrad, but you’d be well compensated, I assure you.” “Thanks for the job offer, but I actually am pretty busy right now,” I explained, “I’m trying to track down the pony—well, one of them—responsible for the destruction of the Republic of Rose. Unfortunately, my hunt for Mr. Bucke has hit a bit of a dead end.” “Mr. Bucke, you say?” Price Slasher said with surprise, “Is that what all the fuss was about?” “What fuss?” I asked urgently, sensing that the mare had some information for me. “Well, I was going to try to send some of my goods with the Stalliongrad Expedition, but they left before I got back. A few of the merchants who were planning on goin’ told me they’d pulled out after a stranger joined the expedition,” Price Slasher said mysteriously, “He called himself Mr. Bucke—a stallion with a white coat and brown mane, with an old suit and fedora—and they didn’t like the looks of him. Some of ‘em acted like they’d escaped death—now I know why.” “Wait, are you telling me that Mr. Bucke was seen? When?” I asked. “Well, the expedition left less than a week ago, so around then. Record Breaker was headed to join the expedition before he was captured by those slavers I heard you took care of.” I couldn’t believe my ears! We’d been so close to Mr. Bucke and never known it! Now, though, we knew where he was, and where he was headed. According to my PipBuck’s map, it was a long way to Stalliongrad, and he’d be traveling with traders, who’d want to move at a pace that would keep their goods safe. Rare and I might even be able to catch him before he made it to Stalliongrad and slipped away into raider-filled ruins again. How glad I was that I’d decided to stop in here and talk to Price Slasher before looking for lodgings! “On second thought,” I said, barely able to contain my excitement, “I think I will take that Stalliongrad job.” Level Up New Perk: You Touch It, You Buy It! – You have become a skilled trader, and are able to make better deals with merchants, +5 to Barter. New Quest: Out of the City – Head to Stalliongrad and catch Mr. Bucke. Barter +5 (27) Big Guns +1 (26) Energy Weapons +3 (59) Explosives +1 (53) Lockpick +3 (53) Medicine +1 (54) Melee Weapons +2 (36) Repair +2 (28) Science +3 (92) Speech +2 (42) Unarmed +2 (30)